About the cftrace tag

The cftrace tag provides the following information:

  • A severity identifier specified by the cftrace tag type attribute

  • A timestamp indicating when the cftrace tag executed

  • The time elapsed between the start of processing the request and when the current cftrace tag executes.

  • The time between any previous cftrace tag in the request and the current one. If this is the first cftrace tag processed for the request, the output indicates “1st trace”. ColdFusion does not display this information in inline trace output, only the log and in the standard debugging output.

  • The name of the page that called the cftrace tag

  • The line on the page where the cftrace call is located

  • A trace category specified by the category attribute

  • A message specified by the text attribute

  • The name and value, at the time the cftrace call executes, of a single variable specified by the var attribute

A typical cftrace tag might look like the following:

<cftrace category="UDF End" inline = "True" var = "MyStatus"  
    text = "GetRecords UDF call has completed">

You can display the cftrace tag output in either or both of the following ways:

  • As a section in the debugging output: To display the trace information in the debugging output, in the Administrator, select Tracing Information on the Debugging Settings page.

  • Inline in your application page: When you specify the inline attribute in a cftrace tag, ColdFusion displays the trace output on the page at the cftrace tag location. (An inline cftrace tag does not display any output if it is inside a cfsilent tag block.)

The cftrace tag executes only if you select Enable Debugging on the ColdFusion Administrator Debugging Settings page. To display the trace results in the debugging output, you must also specify Tracing Information on the Debugging Settings page; otherwise, the trace information is logged and inline traces are displayed, but no trace information appears in the debugging output.

Note: When you use inline trace tags, ColdFusion sends the page to the browser after all page processing is completed, but before it displays the debugging output from the debug template. As a result, if an error occurs after a trace tag but before the end of the page, ColdFusion might not display the trace for that tag.

The following image shows inline trace messages:

View full size graphic

The following table lists the displayed information:

Entry

Meaning

The Information icon for the logging severity type

Trace type (severity) specified in the cftrace call; in this case, Information.

[CFTRACE 13:21:11.011]

Time when the cftrace tag executed.

[501 ms]

Time taken for processing the current request to the point of the cftrace tag.

[C:\CFusion\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tractest.cfm]

Path in the web server of the page that contains the cftrace tag.

@ line:14

The line number of the cftrace tag.

[UDF End]

Value of the cftrace tag category attribute.

GetRecords UDF call has completed

The cftrace tag text attribute with any variables replaced with their values.

MyStatus Success

Name and value of the variable specified by the cftrace tag var attribute.

ColdFusion logs all cftrace output to the file logs\cftrace.log in your ColdFusion installation directory.

A log file entry looks like the following:

"Information","web-29","04/01/02","13:21:11","MyApp","[501 ms (1st trace)] [C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tractest.cfm @ line: 14] - [UDF End] [MyStatus = Success] GetRecords UDF call has completed "

This entry is in standard ColdFusion log format, with comma-delimited fields inside double-quote characters. The information displayed in the trace output is in the last, message, field.

The following table lists the contents of the trace message and the log entries. For more information on the log file format, see Logging errors with the cflog tag.

Entry

Meaning

Information

The Severity specified in the cftrace call.

web-29

Server thread that executed the code.

04/01/02

Date the trace was logged.

13:21:11

Time the trace was logged.

MyApp

The application name, as specified in a cfapplication tag.

501 ms (1st trace)]

The time ColdFusion took to process the current request up to the cftrace tag, This is the first cftrace tag processed in this request. If there had been a previous cftrace tag, the parentheses would contain the number of milliseconds between when the previous cftrace tag ran and when this tag ran.

[C:\CFusion\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tracetest.cfm @ line: 14]

Path of the page on which the trace tag is located and the line number of the cftrace tag on the page.

[UDF End]

Value of the cftrace tag category attribute.

[MyStatus = Success]

Name and value of the variable specified by the cftrace tag var attribute. If the variable is a complex data type, such as an array or structure, the log contains the variable value and the number of entries at the top level of the variable, such as the number of top-level structure keys.

GetRecords UDF call has completed

The cftrace tag text attribute with any variables replaced with their values.